Posts by MK_E

Re: Amiga

The cheat codes for Alien Breed on the Amiga were amazing. Both the original and the special edition 92 version.

"KATRINA HAS FARTED AND ITS A BEAUTY" to make all the aliens vanish, for instance.

Re: Ha

I remember when I was a kid, I went into the library and there was a stack of free comic-looking things there so I took one, and it turned out to be a thing for educating kids about their rights as consumers under the sale of goods act.

The thing is, they'd got the guys from 2000AD to do it. So my education on the way in which merchants need to sell items as described and fit for purpose literally came from Judge Dredd.

Brute force: if it doesn't work, you're not using enough of it.

Re: That's all we need

You shouldn't ever pass somebody on the inside.

This is because it shouldn't be possible to pass somebody on the inside.

If it is possible for you to pull over to the inside lane, pass the vehicle that is currently occupying the outside lane, and return to the outside lane, without cutting into their braking distance or placing the inside lane's traffic within your braking distance, then whatever vehicle you are passing is in the wrong lane.

If it is ever physically possible for someone to safely pass YOU on the inside, pull the hell over until you're actually ready to pass.

Re: This isn't tone deaf - it is purposefully intended to threaten death

In fact, the nazi party REPEALED a lot of the Weimar republic's restrictive gun laws during their rise to power. They just made a little effort to ensure the "right" people had guns.

The 2nd amendment doesn't seem to be applied equally either. Take that bundy militia taking over a federal building and getting a slap on the wrist - now what do you think the response would be if, say, the standing rock protestors had brought weapons, considering the reaction they got from the police WITHOUT them?

Re: KleptoCurrencies

My favourite was the one that was literally named "Ponzicoin" and people were surprised and upset when they took the money and ran.

I'm not 100% sure I'd trust advice on how not to get caught from someone currently serving time.

Re: Whaaat?

To be fair BJ is one of those special class of people who would try to breathe flourine if Obama ever said he liked oxygen.

Re: Marginal generation

Ramp-up time on a nuclear plant means, like renewables, it's running already. Gas is generally the one that's most variable for changes in marginal demand, barring some contribution from pumped storage to balance the load a bit (or STOR if they need more power even faster than that).

Re: Anonymous - why?

It's to disallow the possibility of someone getting a hold of the list of who voted for whom and putting a brick through the windows of anyone who voted against their preferred candidate.

Re: "taking calls in situations where using your phone would be akward, ie whilst cooking"

I got a skiing jacket over in france once with a little pocket in the left sleeve that you can slip a card into. I think it's meant for ski lift passes, but it's fantastic for keeping my office keycard in and letting me just wave my arm at the door without getting anything out.

At least it was until we moved to a new office with the sensor to the right of the door instead of the left.

Re: I'm confused

Yes.

Re: Seriously considered Surface Pro.

I got a surface pro 4 with full-fat win10, but that was for a very specific purpose. I wanted a graphics tablet with the display on the drawing surface to upgrade from my old Bamboo Pen, and it was between that and the cintiq 13HD (which my old graphics card wouldn't support, and wouldn't be portable).

For the very specific combination of "runs full programs, preferably the same ones my desktop runs", "drawing surface on screen", "is portable" and "has a pen" it ticks the boxes for under a grand, the next nearest thing was that wacom companion thing at twice the price.

Re: "disgruntled investors" ?

It's not so much the grinding part as the fact that fishing coffee grounds out of the machine after you've used it is a royal pain in the arse and you don't want to clog the drains by tipping them down the sink.

I swear my potted plants have more coffee than compost at this point.

Re: Use hidden partitions

In any event, proving that a hidden partition exists for them to charge you with a crime for possessing, as opposed to you having to prove the partition doesn't exist, is pretty much the IT equivalent of Habeas Corpus.

Can you prove you HAVEN'T buried a body in the woods somewhere? If not, you're on the hook for murder because we're just going to assume there is because you live near some woods that you could possibly bury a body in.

Re: Common sense is free!

And this right here is why I got me one of them single-cup boilers.

Re: Done all the time...

Something about the optimum number of paperclips springs to mind.

Re: @AC - "banning speech does little to stop the behavior"

If you want to show up to a klan rally and need a ride, I'm not violating your rights if I refuse the use of my car. Simple as that.

I saw a fantastic rant on this subject that can be summed up simply as "you can't just be a weekend nazi".

You want to show up to a klan rally on saturday and go back to work on monday and stand around the watercooler like nothing happened?

If you don't want your life to be ruined by being seen throwing nazi salutes at a tiki-torch-waving far-right gathering and now nobody wants to associate with you or the rest of your citronella mob buddies, then maybe don't show up to a far-right gathering and throw nazi salutes in the street.

Re: The walking dead

"send more paramedics..."

Re: Layers of security

TOR is barely a step above security through obscurity, the equivalent of going out in a crowd in a plain hoodie and jeans. Sure, you'll avoid notice by most, you'll be pretty nondescript to any CCTV operators out there, but the moment you meet up in an underpass with three other behoodied guys, one of whom happens to be an undercover cop, your anonymity won't save you.

Re: found no evidence to suggest that activity is unfairly and intentionally targeted at women

I'm reminded of the story a while back about the student who was looking after a house while the owners were away, answered the door to a Capita goon, and wound up being taken to court despite not being an actual member of the household, or even resident there. She just happened to be the poor chump who answered the door.

Re: Bollocks...

Have an upvote. I live in a satellite town and take the train in for a weekday commute. For travelling in en-masse with a few hundred other people who are all going from Specific Place A to Specific Place B, mass transit is perfect.

On weekends? Sucks to be me, the trains don't run frequently enough to get me into town on time. Nobody else is going in at 7am on a Saturday so it doesn't make sense to send an entire train either.

On night shifts? No such thing as an overnight return on scotrail, fork out for two singles even though it's literally the same as a dayshift worker's "go into work and back" just with AM and PM reversed.

If I want to visit the parents? Public transport is, according to google, three changes minimum and will take three hours, at god knows what cost, while hopping in the car will get me there in little over an hour with as much crap packed into the boot as I feel like carrying. Even heading into Glasgow, the instant I put a single person in my passenger seat, it becomes cheaper per person than paying rail fare. Another guy I know wanted to travel from Leeds to Birmingham for the bank holiday weekend. It was literally cheaper for two people to go to the airport and hire a car than it was to take the train.

All the ads and viral images I see scattered around the place along the lines of that one with a city street packed with cars and what it would look like if all those people took a single city bus or light rail seem to be oblivious to the idea that not all people are travelling to or from the same places or at the same times.

Re: @Christian Berger, re: stupid bills.

I once withdrew all my cash from a bank account (I took on a short contract job for a bank and the account came with the job), and THEN closed the account.

Not long after, I received a cheque for the accrued interest for 1p. I've still got it somewhere.

Re: Sea-skimming microwave

At a guess, I'd say part of the signal was reflecting off the water and onto the receiver, and this reflected beam would be out of phase with the main (direct) beam. At the right water level, this could make for some interesting interference patterns.

Re: What now follows?

It's the difference between the government telling you you're not allowed to go to the pub, and Big Dave down at the Dog & Duck saying "get out, you're barred".

Re: It would be nice...

I'm reminded of the time I took the overnight coach from Glasgow into Victoria, and was meeting someone at King's Cross at 11am. My coach got me in at around 6AM on a saturday morning in July, not a cloud in the air, so I figured I'd just walk it.

It was a really nice walk, the traffic hadn't got going yet, and the sights were better than anything I'd get from the inside of a tunnel.

The people I was meeting looked at me like I had two heads when we moved on and they found I hadn't bought a tube ticket yet.

Re: Unidentified foreign law enforcement agency?

I'd just assumed it was "Foreign Legal Authority" or something to that effect.

Re: Juicing is bad

Reminded of seeing a grauniad article from some yuppie talking about avocados, that seriously asked the question of whether they'd become too cheap and accessible to be "aspirational".

I seem to recall hearing about one local council running a pilot project for a traffic calming measure a few years back - rather than the usual speeding fines and accusations of using speed limits as revenue generation, the plan was to have the radars passively detect people travelling over the limit and instruct the lights half a mile up the road to go red.

Wonder how that would play with this system?

Re: anyone else ...

I was wondering what all that was about.

Re: Said it before, will say it again

I used to have a Cineworld Unlimited subscription, then I moved house. Now the cost of travelling to the cineworld obliterates any savings from the subscription. Cinema near me now is a Vue and they don't seem to have that offer available. Which is a shame, 'cause with the unlimited card I would quite happily go and watch whatever happened to be on, even things I normally wouldn't bother with (and certainly wouldn't pay full ticket price for) since I'd already paid.

When you factor in the fact that I could practically squeeze another entire movie in the time I'd spend sitting around travelling or waiting through trailers for the feature to start, now if I'm going to the cinema it's got to be for something I REALLY want to watch on the big screen.

I get them at my desk sometimes. Thick indian accent identifying himself as "Angus Mcleod from Microsoft"

Aye right.

The only reason any of my family have got the 3DS is because for some godforsaken reason the 2DS was designed with that giant slab form factor that can't be closed and doesn't fit in a pocket. Nothing to do with the 3D.

Re: What's so wrong about a private email server?

The first thing that came to mind was the scene from Devil's Advocate when Keanu Reeves walks in on his manager shredding a load of documents.

Re: Sandwich filler?

The shock front moved at 3km/s, not the earth.

You don't get buildings blown over by ~770mph winds every time there's a loud noise.